The raid on Monday, which Israeli authorities said was intended to collect municipal tax debts, escalates tensions between Israel and the United Nations in what is an already extremely fraught relationship.

Philippe Lazzarini, who heads UNRWA, said the compound was not in active use, but he said that it remains a United Nations location, exempt from search, seizure or taxation under international law. “To allow this represents a new challenge to international law, one that creates a dangerous precedent anywhere else the U.N. is present across the world,” he wrote on social media.